To be honest, replacing Reed with another poorly designed multi-purpose won't produce the income that supports the kind of program most of us here want. Or for that matter renovating if the superstructure under the butts can't be significantly changed. But a facelift might support fan base growth and help build local support and draw in students when we win.
Mew need to realize Kyle Field is the result of a long accumulation of culture. It is possible to repeat some of it in Reed (or replacement) but we need investment to pull it off. And not just facilities spend.

We should not repeat the mistake of dragging our heels on meaningful investment. That's part of how we lost BCG. Need to pick a coach we can make successful by getting the crowds in and then get the wins in and work on upgrades.

Buzz very carefully avoided taking on the Gary Blair retail marketing role recruiting fans one by one. I think he is absolutely right and the Athletic Department needs to make it happen.

Seems to me that the central conflict between the need for a 15-16k seat graduation venue and a 9-10k seat BB venue needs to be resolved before anyone starts making any design or redesign decisions.

That seems to me to be one heck of a Gordian knot.

bobinator said:

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We absolutely do not need additional seating for students.

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We need to move student seating to the side of the court. Former Ags and season ticket holders on the other side.

Have we started this project yet?

Sips spent a third of a BILLION dollars on their new arena. Looks nice, and I like that they can section off the upper deck for when the team is crappy, but they only get to spend mega bucks since they can generate big money with concerts. Also helps that their old arena was so terrible that they can justify a complete rebuild.

Erwin center was an eyesore and 45 years old, surprised it took this long.

UT owns the arena but it was financed from a $130 million gift from the Moody foundation, local event organizations, and yes UT as well. UT can use the arena 60 days a year, all others days for non-UT events. They have an advantage being in Austin and this being a facility that can host concerts and other large events, much bigger demand for that in Austin compared to a smaller college focused town.

Complete Idiot said:

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Erwin center was an eyesore and 45 years old, surprised it took this long.

UT owns the arena but it was financed from a $130 million gift from the Moody foundation, local event organizations, and yes UT as well. UT can use the arena 60 days a year, all others days for non-UT events. They have an advantage being in Austin and this being a facility that can host concerts and other large events, much bigger demand for that in Austin compared to a smaller college focused town.

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The first few opening shows are pretty funny (Mayer for two nights, Bon Jovi, and Beiber)

https://moodycenteratx.com/events/

Dude Perfect has a gig set for the summer.

60 days is correct as far as what UT gets:

https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/college/2022/04/18/moody-center-contract-gives-ut-texas-basketball-60-days-year-use-suite-revenue-oak-view-group/7356434001/

Quote:

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. . .
Former Texas President Gregory L. Fenves promised the Longhorns' basketball teams would have first dibs on any scheduling dates in the new $338-million Moody Center.

Oak View Group, the California-based outfit that wrote the check, had no issue with that. Best to get it in writing, though.

According to the 124-page contract between UT and its new partner, the university reserved 60 calendar days each year the majority being UT men's and women's basketball games and UT and high school graduation ceremonies.
. . .
Most of the documents detail construction, covering everything from tree removal to waste management. The facility will be configured to hold about 10,500 fans for UT basketball games and can be expanded to 15,500 for other events.
. . .
"It's a win for students, fans, student-athletes, the city of Austin and Longhorn Nation and this deal could very well set a new precedent for how colleges and universities develop new complexes across the country," interim UT President Jay Hartzell told the Statesman.
. . .
The arena contract lays bare one unmistakable fact: UT officials control the building and revenue on days of university events and Oak View Group controls everything on days of its events. Texas owns the building and the land underneath it; OVG will manage the facility as part of a 35-year agreement with a five-year option.
. . .
All ticket, parking, concession and merchandise revenue goes to UT on days of Longhorns games, for example. UT sets the ticket pricing and even the costs of hot dogs and popcorn. But the contract states that OVG controls the ticket costs and pricing on concert days, meaning the costs could be different.

Texas also gets 20% of all revenue generated by the suites regardless of the event a financial kicker of sorts that will goose the bottom line.
. . .

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https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/2022/02/28/texas-basketball-moody-center-season-ticket-cost-best-seats/9323782002/

Quote:

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Courtside seats at Texas' new Moody Center will cost you $8,500 per ticket. There aren't many of those to go around, either.

On Monday, Texas officials unveiled ticket prices and donation levels for the 2022-23 men's basketball season, the first in the as-yet-unopened Moody Center. Season tickets run anywhere from $500 to sit high in the end zones to $8,500 to sit up close, according to the pricing data.
. . .
Just to sit center court, Texas fans will have to shell out anywhere from $4,000-$7,500. Upper-level season tickets between the baskets will cost $2,300, and fans can sit high on the corners for anywhere from $500-$750.

Texas students won't pay anything close to those numbers. Students get in with a first-come, first-served "Big Ticket" athletic pass, which is $175 for the 2022-23 academic year. That pass is good for all UT home athletic event.

Inside Moody Center, students will get the bulk of the best seats, too. As Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte promised, the student seating will wrap around three-fourths of the lower bowl, according to the seating document.

"It's 270 degrees," Del Conte said. According to the seating chart, the student section includes the area behind the visiting team bench.

Students will be visible on the TV camera angle, like at Duke or Gonzaga. Texas officials want fans at home to see UT students going wild during games.

Moody Center's seating configuration for basketball is expected to be around 10,000. Fans are allowed a limit of four tickets, according to Texas' documentation. The Erwin Center, which closes out its 45-year run as UT's basketball home this week, holds 16,540.
. . .

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The contract works like Sharps' do.

Having just witnesses this year's spring graduation, yes, the full currently capacity of Reed is necessary for that function. 6 ceremonies over 3 days, and Reed was at 90+% for all of them. And that's with limiting guests to 6 per graduate.

Floor capacity was something like 1800 chairs for grads. With time required to get people into the arena, have all the grads walk, and get everyone out again, you'd have to go to 4 days if you want to add additional ceremonies.

Smeghead4761 said:

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Having just witnesses this year's spring graduation, yes, the full currently capacity of Reed is necessary for that function. 6 ceremonies over 3 days, and Reed was at 90+% for all of them. And that's with limiting guests to 6 per graduate.

Floor capacity was something like 1800 chairs for grads. With time required to get people into the arena, have all the grads walk, and get everyone out again, you'd have to go to 4 days if you want to add additional ceremonies.

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The time to process the full floor is pretty much the tolerance for the full crowd, too. My daughter graduated in December 2018 and it was my first graduation since my brother and I got our College of Science degrees the same day in 1985 in Jolly Rolly…which felt just as full and seemed to take just as long…

I didn't time how long it took for every grad to get their paper, but for the morning ceremonies, doors opened at 8:30, ceremony started at 10:00, at it was about 1:30-1:45 before the parking lots were mostly clear.

On the plus side, the concession stands now sell beer and margaritas at graduation. I didn't see it, but I'm told there was at least one instance of someone in the stands dropping a beer to a grad on the floor.

Smeghead4761 said:

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I didn't time how long it took for every grad to get their paper, but for the morning ceremonies, doors opened at 8:30, ceremony started at 10:00, at it was about 1:30-1:45 before the parking lots were mostly clear.

On the plus side, the concession stands now sell beer and margaritas at graduation. I didn't see it, but I'm told there was at least one instance of someone in the stands dropping a beer to a grad on the floor.

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I didn't see any in 2018. But did buy popcorn and a drink. Which I appreciated after the length of the ceremony. Worth it to see her in her cap and gown. Our first second generation Ag. We have three other first generation between my wife's family and mine.

We lost BCG because he was always chasing other jobs (i.e. Arkansas and Kentucky- and who knows which other ones). Yep n the end he tried to come back but had burned too many bridges (i.e. did not sign his upgraded contract extension).

TXAGBQ76 said:

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We lost BCG because he was always chasing other jobs (i.e. Arkansas and Kentucky- and who knows which other ones). Yep n the end he tried to come back but had burned too many bridges (i.e. did not sign his upgraded contract extension).

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We didn't make much progress on Cox-McFerrin before he left and there was at least an informal commitment to get that rolling when he came on board. And the grass seemed much green elsewhere. I interacted with Byrne via email and he wasn't sure whether he would sign after the extension was announced. Rare moment when I got a response though Bill did address some of my questions in his monthly(ish) post on then aggiesports.com.

It's why I am a huge fan of using the available communications channel(s) to ask the interesting questions.

BeatHellOutOfTU said:

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Seems like a waste of money at this point

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Oh Grasshopper have you not learn? Agfusius says to build it and they will come!

Bring back BCG.

Pretty sure whoever writes check will want their name on the building vs. the name of the guy who the check for two arenas ago. Just a guess on my part though.

Yep, those tens of students put fear into the hearts of opponents!

Grand Canyon has half the students we do and a lot of them are probably commuters. They've only been D1 for 6 years. To do something like this we'd have to draw more than 60 students and the yell leaders and yells would have to be banned from the arena.

Grand Canyon strategically chose you emphasize sports as part of effectively a for-profit buy out. Prior version of the school was a Southern Baptist state convention owned school that got in trouble financially due to a broad financial scam in Arizona. It was a very good school prior and seems to be doing aight still.

Their success in basketball is a choice. Not being ham-handed on running out athletics is the starting point. As much as I like Buzz, it's pretty clear this wasn't the most straightforward path to filling Reed and he seems rather aloof to the causes. If not just generally aloof…

Maybe it would help if people realized that Reed is a graduation venue that we also happen to use for basketball and volleyball.

Reed was at at least 90% capacity for all the graduations. That's probably a bit over 70k parents, relatives, friends, etc, right now spread over 6 events in three days.

If you reduce the capacity, you'd need at least an extra day of graduations, unless you plan on reducing the max number of guests per graduate (currently at 6 - Mom, Dad, and both sets of grandparents. Which Nana doesn't get to see her grandkid graduate if you reduce the guests?)

Smeghead4761 said:

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Maybe it would help if people realized that Reed is a graduation venue that we also happen to use for basketball and volleyball.

Reed was at at least 90% capacity for all the graduations. That's probably a bit over 70k parents, relatives, friends, etc, right now spread over 6 events in three days.

If you reduce the capacity, you'd need at least an extra day of graduations, unless you plan on reducing the max number of guests per graduate (currently at 6 - Mom, Dad, and both sets of grandparents. Which Nana doesn't get to see her grandkid graduate if you reduce the guests?)

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It was built as a convention center and had an extra donation acting like an endowment dedicated to covering operational costs to get it up and profitable. The plan to get events in that would support ongoing costs was a failure and the endowment went quickly.

The discussion of any kind of event center needs to actually provide multiple areas for meetings from small to huge. There needs to be a crisp discussion on how the school does that better than last time at the very least.

Nothing prevents any decision that makes sense except funding. If Kyle had been re-built as a domed stadium, for instance (or retractable roof), hosting one graduation ceremony would be possible (through not practical) to cover 70K attendees.

I think locking down a specific purpose for Reed that is purely school focused and ignores the opportunity to have a revenue positive sport with 18-20 home games per year as an anchor might be the right balance. More if we can get the WBB program rocking and rolling. And more revenue if we find a way to reconfigure it to do that. Today's Reed really isn't designed to do that. And it isn't an intimate venue for our sports at all (too far from floor, second deck is isolated and doesn't focus noise to the floor.)

I don't actually care what they choose to do as long as the leadership truly leads and is accountable to correct previous processes that came up short. We might have that figured out.

GrayMatter said:

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Grand Canyon's basketball arena capacity: 7,000

Reed Arena capacity: 12,989

G Rollie White Coliseum capacity: 7,800

Our capacity doesn't need to be that big especially since the majority of the time we aren't at capacity except for Kentucky or tu.

Smaller and more fitting with our culture is better than trying to be something we are not. We are a football school that happens to have a good basketball team every now and then.

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Look WHERE GCSU puts the students!

Cameron Indoor seats 9314. Students occupy on side and one end of the bleachers. Even when Duke had trouble in the early to mid 70s, students were on BOTH sides of the bleachers and came to every game and through at least the early 90s.

When we don't respect the students and give them a handful of seats on both sides, we can't expect massive turnouts for every game.

greg.w.h said:

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Grand Canyon strategically chose you emphasize sports as part of effectively a for-profit buy out. Prior version of the school was a Southern Baptist state convention owned school that got in trouble financially due to a broad financial scam in Arizona. It was a very good school prior and seems to be doing aight still.

Their success in basketball is a choice. Not being ham-handed on running out athletics is the starting point. As much as I like Buzz, it's pretty clear this wasn't the most straightforward path to filling Reed and he seems rather aloof to the causes. If not just generally aloof…

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Our admin does not make MBB a priority. Football and baseball are first and second.

DukeMu said:

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greg.w.h said:

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Grand Canyon strategically chose you emphasize sports as part of effectively a for-profit buy out. Prior version of the school was a Southern Baptist state convention owned school that got in trouble financially due to a broad financial scam in Arizona. It was a very good school prior and seems to be doing aight still.

Their success in basketball is a choice. Not being ham-handed on running out athletics is the starting point. As much as I like Buzz, it's pretty clear this wasn't the most straightforward path to filling Reed and he seems rather aloof to the causes. If not just generally aloof…

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Our admin does not make MBB a priority. Football and baseball are first and second.

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Could be. Though I'm guessing Buzz makes more than Schloss…

It's a choice to ignore he potential of basketball.

Doesn't Buzz make $3.500 million? I'm pleased with his progress myself. Reed is a good place for basketball. BCS is not Austin, so leave Reed alone.

monarch said:

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Doesn't Buzz make $3.500 million? I'm pleased with his progress myself. Reed is a good place for basketball. BCS is not Austin, so leave Reed alone.

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no we need an upgrade

monarch said:

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Doesn't Buzz make $3.500 million? I'm pleased with his progress myself. Reed is a good place for basketball. BCS is not Austin, so leave Reed alone.

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He signed an extension in 2019 paying 3.8 million in 2020 and escalating $100,000 per year after that. So $4.0 million this year if i have the period of the extension correct. Might be off by $100,000 though.

PJYoung said:

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Quote:

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This major upgrade will refresh our basketball arena to include premier seating and club areas with hospitality services. We will widen our concourse and open it up to improve access and viewing while visiting concessions. We will reconfigure how our arena looks on the inside and offer more dynamic and engaging visuals to bring a second-to-none experience to student-athletes and fans.

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That's beautiful.

Imagine how much better at FTs this team would be with a renovated Reed Arena

What a waste.

What's the status of this?